Collection of the best infographics & data visualization on the Web!

Getting the Most from the Job Market Infographic

There is a lot of information on this infographic, but isn’t that what infographics are for? Getting a lot of information across in an easy-to-understand way? Yes. That’s why we’re all here, right? So let’s see if this piece does its job.

Percent of Distribution by Income

If I’m reading this wheel right, it looks like 20.5% of the distribution of money (?) goes to people who make $100,000/year or more. Or is it that 20.5% of the population makes $100,000/year or more? I’m assuming that it’s 20.5% of the money, but that could be wrong. This section could be a little clearer. The average yearly salary in 2010 was $44,410.00.

Top 10 Highest Paying Jobs

The highest paying jobs are, in order from largest salary to smallest, surgeon, anesthesiologist, CEO, dentist orthodontist, lawyer, natural science manager, petroleum engineer, architectural and engineering manager, computer and information systems manager, and marketing manager. There is also a section on this list that shows how many average years of college one of these professions takes. The list is kind of skewed, because below it shoes that there are other professions in the medical field that pay more than CEO, etc.

Top 10 Lowest Paying Jobs

The lowest paying jobs, in order of lowest pay to highest, are fast food cooks, food prep people, dishwashers, shampooers, counter attendants, hosts and hostesses, amusement park attendants, cashiers, farmworkers, and ushers. The average hourly wage of the top 10 is $73.86 per hour, the average hourly wage of the lowest 10 is $9.32, while the minimum wage is $7.25.

Money By Degree

A person who doesn’t graduate high school stands to make $21,332 per year, while a person with an advanced degree stands to make $55,242. A person with a Bachelor Degree will make twice what a person who didn’t graduate high school will make.

Earnings by Major

The next section handles earnings by major – take a look. You may be surprised by the numbers. There is also a list of the top 10 majors with theh highest median earnings. They’re mostly all in engineering or science.

Percentage of Employment by Education

See the graph for a further explanation of this.

Is School Worth the Cost?

The final sections deal with the cost of schooling, and a listing of the top 10 majors with highest employment rate vs. the top 10 majors with the lowest. It also shows how much it costs to get certain degrees, and the meager starting salaries of those professions. But I think the point is that eventually, if you earn a degree, you will earn more money. And, an advanced degree will end up earning you the most money.

Design: B+

The infographic is attractive and split into easy-to-follow sections.

Information: B-

Other than the unclear section about the distribution by income, the information is straightforward and illuminating.